I just beat my record for a 4x5 challenge type. 16 minutes! Forget my stats. I sometimes leave the puter and go out and finish the puzzle when I return. Usually I have been taking about 30 minutes but sometimes with a really hard one an hour. Other times when I am stuck I resign from the puzzle and take a hint and out of curiosity to see what the record is I finish it with the help of hints to be quicker. Please post a reply to this thread for amusing anecdotes. After all this is a VERY FUN place to be in these difficult times we live in.

I am wondering if any of the younger members here play this site on their phones? That in my mind would be awesome. I am betting there are some mobile phone players even setting records. Maybe that is what I see some young people doing crossing a busy street, instead of watching the traffic.

Congratulations on beating your record time! My latest goal is to set the record time for 5 puzzles in each size category. I would like to make my completion rate higher, but, like you, I often find it necessary to leave a puzzle for a little while. Oh, Life, why do you interrupt my fun?

The most recent goal that I reached was to get a points:seconds ratio of 2. I did a 4x4 easy in 128 seconds, giving me 257 points! If I could do that every time, then I'd be scoring as well as some of the people in the top of the charts.

My next goal is to get 1 record for each puzzle type, so that I can know the max points for each puzzle (as was asked here: http://www.logic-puzzles.org/forum/showthread.php?t=351). So far, I've maxed a 3x4 easy and 3x4 challenging (both gave 80 pts). I've also maxed a 3x5 easy (giving 180), and a 4x4 challenging (giving 290).

I timed myself on a challenge 4x5 and I took 30 minutes. It took me 5 minutes to read the clues and fill the grid with X's. Xisa completed the entire puzzle in 2 minutes 17 secs. I am amazed that in half the time I took to read and enter the clues on the grid Xisa had finished completely. That seems impossible. I did the same thing with the next puzzle and it took me
41 mins and about 5 minutes to read & enter the first round of x's Niki finished the entire puzzle in 3mins 9 secs. Also incredible. I am still struggling to beat my record of 16 minutes.

Well ever so slowly. I have yet to get into an average time. It looks far off mind you, considering the amount of talented people here. Incidentally, this must be the world championship site of Logic Problems. Wouldn't the Admins agree? Wouldn't the members here agree? I must thank the Admins for the standard of explanation of the hints.That must be an excellent programmer who did the work. I have just finished two puzzles and cannot still believe the record times. Niki had another one in a really rediculous time of 3 minutes. It took me 5minutes to run down the clues and mark of a first time lot of x's and maybe the odd positive clue. It took me another hour to complete. Ridiculous. Do the really super fast players have very high IQ's? Do they play other games like chess, bridge etc? I think they could get a great job with either the intellence agencies or at least the police. What say you?

If it makes you feel any better Stan, getting "an average time" is far better than a time equal to "an average player's average time". I wouldn't be surprised at all that you are faster than half the users here, just because there are so many users who solve 1-3 puzzles, and then quit, and never try another puzzle.

I wouldn't be surprised if half the puzzles solved are solved by the same 5% of users. The people trying to get trophies are solving thousands of puzzles each month, and so seeing how your time compares to the others in the graph is basically showing how you compare with that small group of people. For each person in the top 50, there are probably hundreds who get frustrated and quit after doing just a few puzzles.